The electronic edition is a part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.

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English

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2005-08-08, Brian Dietz finished TEI/XML encoding.

Source(s):

Title of collection: Cornelia Phillips Spencer Papers (#683), Southern
Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Title of document: Letter from Cornelia Phillips Spencer to Laura
Caroline Phillips, June 14, 1869

Author: C. P. S.

Description: 12 pages, 10 page images

Note:
Call number 683 (Southern Historical Collection,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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It is my wish & intention to write you "a good long
letter," but I do not know whether I shall be able to make it
either good or long. This is early Monday morning. The wind is blowing
"fair & free." & here I remark we have not
had much wind this spring, & a fresh
breeze strikes me as a novelty. There were light showers last night
& when I went out just now for a turn in the garden, the larkspurs
& white jasmine & holly hocks were in their glory &
the cabbages on a broad grin. How sweet it all is, you well know. Do you
know that I never can write to you about this old house of yours without a
swelling at the heart & often at the eyes. It seems so hard, so
incredible that you shd have been forced away from it. I
am sitting at your especial window. The Mimosa is
just beginning to bloom. June has made up the bed (we sleep in the other
room; sit in here) & picked up & put away everything
& set both rooms perfectly to rights all but the sweeping wh I did myself. I told her just now, I meant to
call her "Help." She is such a
help. She sits near in her little carpet bottom chair, dressing
"Lea." One of these windows fell down on her foot last Sat
& she is quite lame. How could a window
fall

Page 2

on a body's foot? Easy enough when you sit with your bare legs elevated out on the
window sill in order to get your feet warmed in the sunshine of a cool
morning. June
is looking not well. Excessively thin, but that may be going to be
constitutional. She seems to be well. We miss Noratremendously, wh is
the only word to express it. Well, & we have had our Com. &
are resting from its pleasing pains & fatigues, while yours is all
to come. You never heard of such a grand (& to us & our side, delightful) fizzle as Commencement has been. For
two or three weeks the Faculty & the Reds have talked of nothing but
the inauguration. Holden & Grant
were both coming. They industriously circulated thro the country that there
was to be a free supper given Com. night. Mrs Pool said
herself she wd have supper for 100 people. Pool ordered hacks to be in waiting at Dr Wed. for forty persons. Nobody came. Thursday Ten
Trustees & seven others arrived. But I believe the
Sentinel will tell you all that. I have not seen the S. not sending to the
P.O. Sunday, & too early yet to send. But I hear it appeared
yesterday. I do not remember a word I wrote to Sentinel. I wrote in such
haste & with such vexatious interruptions, I fear it is a little too
spiteful. The letters to Wm Journal, & to
Presbyn. were written next day & are better. However we all

Page 3

felt like
rejoicing no little. Rodman
was very emphatic with the reminder that these men were here provisionally. Holden says (said in his speech) the
people shd be taxed to support the Uni. if
they wd not patronize it. Rodman said in his speech in the afternoon that could not be done. McIver told me this Sat morning
(he came & sat a long time) I wish I had known it when I wrote my
letters. Pools says (McIver told me) that Rodman did not use the word "provisional", & encourages himself & his men
to hold on. McIver says he cannot bear to hear them talk. He says he is
pretty well satisfied that the game is up here, & their affected
security fills him with disgust. I told him if he had heard all Prof Kerr said, he would
have been even more certain. Kerr clapped his hands together with exultation when he spoke of
Rodman's speech
— "Provisional &
Temporary". Pool's speech (prepared for his Inaugural) (Kerr laughed so at the
idea of "Installation," saying there never had been any
thought of such a thing except in C. Hill) was all I have said of it in the papers.
McIver says it was sophomoricalhigh falutin & common-place. Holden went up to him & congratulated him!
Rodman said not a word.
By the way Judge R. sent
me a very polite message, wished to call, but being here so few hours cd not
get time &c & told McIver — the
"Sketches" were more beautifully written & had
more good clear sense

Page 4

in them than anything he
had read in many a day! Aha! Also, Mr. Kerr said they had done immense
good & been greatly sought after, & read, & were
"delightful." I have had several letters to that effect.
One from an old student saying at the close
"tell your brother he knows not the good he has done by his
sketches of the dear Uni." I hereby divide the credit
between Chas & Sam & "make it
over j'intly". Well. It was so well d (that was not a tear-drop but
June, who is fussing now at my hair & wetting it &
flirted the water all over everything. She looks over my shoulder very
persistent & says, what did you go & tell aunt L. for, that it was me.) It is now after breakfast, nearly
9 & I have just had a visit from Ann Mickle. Such are
the interruptions of letter writing. To resume. It was so well-done of C.H. people to
stand aloof & let the world see they would not sanction this crew. I
am so pleased with the spirit they showed. Rodman alluded to the absence of the townsfolk in
his speech as another proof of the prostration of & want of
confidence in the Uni. Miss Ann W. spent Com. day with us. I saw old Mrs. W. Sunday (yesterday)
& she said "Some of 'em asked me if I wouldn't go to the
Chapel & I said if I did, I'd rise right up in my place &
say this is no Commencement & that's no Faculty." Miss Ann Saunders has
been (is yet) very ill with typhoid fever, dangerously, I am grieved to say.
This is

Page 5

the 12th day. I
walked up to inquire after her from S.S. yesterday & coming back to
go to Meth. Church, it being too early I stopped in to talk with old Mrs. W. She looked very
smart, sitting with her old Bible & two or three good books on the
chair near. It made me think of your Mother so to look at her. Revd
Mr Jenkins, who used to be minister here) is now with his wife on
a visit to his old flock. They all seem to love him so. A good crowd at Ch.
Mr J. & his
wife refused to go near the Chapel! (He said "Pool need not expect
Methodists to support him, they were too ashamed of such a
representation!") Do you see the Wm Journal?
Englehardt has
opened a 40 gun battery on the Uni. Last week it was infested by
"pismires", this week, "presided over by
nincompoops". Mrs.
Carr told me she met Woods in the street Com. day. "Well, Mr Woods this looks like
our Com. didn't it". Oh, says W., "Its all them horrid pieces in the
papers that has done it. Wm Journal is out today with a
most horrid piece, & I expect Mrs Spencer is swallowing it down like hot cakes
this minute." You all read the "appeal" of
course. Well, it hurt more than anything that has
yet appeared. Touch a man's pocket, his receipts, & you touch a
vital point. Pool & his subs were furious.
Mr Kerr said it had
a good effect abroad. McIver said it was powerful, he thought it the finest written thing of the kind he
ever saw &

Page 6

worthy
of Junius, & moreover only one person in the State cd have written it & that was Dr Hubbard. That Mr Pool was positive Dr H. wrote it
& so was he. I replied that I could answer for Dr
H. that he never saw it till it was in print. McIver said I must
be mistaken. Well, Pool & Mason got up a rejoinder in the Standard, the most
scurrilous thing I am told that has ever appeared. Attacking Dr H & Argo & all the old Faculty
& me & everything connected with
the old times. The old Faculty plundered the college. My brothers
beneficiaries & I educated at its expense & now showing my
ingratitude by writing it down, Dr Mitchell chief robber
& plunderer, Dr H. "loitering
round" here now in hopes of getting back, Argo sucking a living out of
somebody, &c. I have not seen it nor wd read a
line. Every body is laughing over it. McIver is sick, sick, sick!
Soon after Dr H. came he asked his opinion
privately about resigning. Dr advised him to
hold on for the present. He says Brewer is going off to Cornell
Uni. & Yale Coll & around generally to get
up "plans & ideas". I asked how he was to put them
in operation. Said he did'nt know. I said why did'nt he go too, all of em
ought to go together & I would write their travels for them when
they returned & entitle it "Travels of a Faculty in search
of a College.["] McIver laughs

Page 7

at it so much
as anybody. He is getting excluded from Mr. Pool's
"ring". He is so universally excepted in all the attacks
that the others are getting sore & stiff towards him. He told me
Sat. he hardly ever saw any of them now. But that in F meetings they talked
boastfully as ever. He has been made one of the C. Hill
R.R. directors. And votes against Pool! Pool is
aghast at his temerity. McI. puts out his under lip & goes on.
Do you know Holden has refused to issue the R.R. bonds. Do you know why? I
dare say you don't, so I'll tell you. You do know that Thompson voted for himself for
President. Well, and so Holden wanted Argo President. On the issue of the election
Holden insisted that the votes shd be published.
Now the attorney General (by Holden's direction) has taken the ground that there
is no lawful inauguration of the R.R. Directors replied that there was,
Directors, President, all quite regular. Atty. Gen. replied that no man cd vote himself into office & the election of
Thompson was illegal
& a farce, & so instructed Gov H. who thereupon refused to
issue the bonds on that ground. It is before the
S. Court now, & McIver says he
hopes the Atty. G. will argue that point in court. He thinks Thompson's behaviour on the
occasion disgraceful & "contemptible" &
says he told Pool the other day he wd not be Director under a President who
had voted himself in. McIver never

Page 8

had
heard how T. got the
place till this move of Holden's! He & Argo read Law together but
Argo never
had mentioned the story, supposing of course that he knew it. Oh, let me not
forget to mention that Mason went up on the Stage Com. day & sat down among the Trustees! Town folks so mad about it. And it is a fact that the
furniture was taken out of the Di & Phi Halls for the
Faculty parlors, & a fact that Patrickburst open the Phi Hall to get
the velvet rugs & a piece of carpeting. He had taken the large
velvet arm chairs, but on consideration, sent them back, Wed. evening. I
asked Wm Barham, (who resigned Friday,
& can therefore speak out) if it was all true & he said it
was. It was done openly the Sat. before, the servants carrying the things
about in broad daylight. Mr Mickle has let Patrick have all Mr Martin's furniture. I am
surprised Martin wd let it go if there is any chance
of his returning to this State. Barham said Mrs Patrick said in his hearing, "Wait
till she got her parlor fixed & she wd be as big
a frog as any in the pond". You never saw people more enraged than
our villagers over that furniture raid at College. McIver declined to
join it & is reported to have said when it was proposed, that the
Trustees might sit on split-bottomed chairs at his house before
he wd— use the Societies' things.

Page 9

Have just read Sat.'s Sentinel. My account of Com. is not as sharp as I thought it was. Perhaps all the
better for that. I'll try to send you Wm Journal. I send
with this the Biblical Recorder on the situation. Chs
must read "Item" & tell
me what he thinks. I wish your Com. was over. I hope you will give me as
full an acct as I have of ours. I am not afraid of tiring you by any
over-minuteness about our doings. A fine state of
things for a letter written when he feels that he cannot say too much. I
only wish I cd stereotype this letter for all the other
ex-C. Hillians, Eliza
& Mrs M., Mrs Swain, Mrs Battle, all. I had
a pleasant letter from Mrs. Swain Sat. I wrote to
her on old Com. day, & she was much
gratified. Ellie has a daughter, born near the anniversary of the boy's
death. Mrs Swain compliments Dr
Hubbard so for writing the "appeal"!

I have read your letter about Mrs Smith's & Margt visit to half a dozen of
your old friends. All so pleased &
interested in it. Mrs
Cave among others. She returned last Tuesday — been at
Emily's ever since Nov.
Came to see us Friday with Mrs. Caro. Patterson & very
pleasant. Asked 100 questions about you & all other old neighbors
now departed. She looks very well. Is going back
to Clinton.
Jane G's health is better just now.

Page 10

Wash. Davis's
family is having chills & fever. That lot of Smith's is not a healthy one. I know
how you must have enjoyed seeing Mrs S. How near & dear to each other you
all must have felt. E. writes
cheerfully about Mary,
& I trust she will be quite restored. Her illness & the
disease itself weighed upon my mind. I was frightened for her. I wish she
wd come by C.H. on her way back. Would she? I forgot to
tell you that Ralph
Buxton brought his wife to see me. Very pleasant, he was so cordial
& seemed so glad. Says Mrs Hall & Mary both look badly, old
& feeble & sad. Mrs B. is very pretty
& very gay & smart & patronizing. You know she
writes for Standard. "[unrecovered]"
— & they say the "grey mare is the better
horse" altogether. They & Rodman & Kerr staid at McIver's. I would like to know how they were entertaind.
Mrs Mc has no servant but the girl she bo't from D. I have seen her in but 2 frocks, one she
had on in her one round of call-making, the
other, the same old purple calico she had on at D. with dingy red flannel sleeves peeping out at
the wrists. She wears low-gartered home-made shoes & so does her
little girl, & home knit stockings with a white frock &
rather fine hat! The child does look piteously. These fine people wear
things Patricks & Pools rather look down on the McIvers you may
depend. I think Brewer is next to McI. the best of the
bunch. But think of the McIvers being the best. However you may rely on it Mr McIver is a good & reliable man.

June is now
busy teaching Cely to write, working very hard with her. I miss
Nora as I said, &
love the child dearly, but I do enjoy having June all to myself a while! Selfish witch!
Yes, I know it. Kate F.
writes that her engagement is not broken off, but
admits there is a coolness. Jule Carr in my opinion has no idea of "stepping
in." He told me if it had'nt been for him &
Miss Mollie Phillips it would have been broken
off 8 mos ago. Do make a face at that as I did (without
letting M. see you). Tank Carr is going to Henderson next
session. The Carrs wd object violently to Jule's marrying Kate!

Best love to all. Do let me hear from some of you soon. 1000 kisses to Sue
from me & June.